418 PHANEROGAMIA. 



This species is closely allied to A. uniflorus, DC. and A. gemini- 

 florus, Humb. & BonpL; but is much smaller in all its parts, has 

 different leaflets, &c. It appears to be equally distinct from the A. 

 Peruvianus, A. minimus, and A. pusillus of Vogel, which are described 

 as having the tube of the calyx three or four times the length of the 

 teeth. 



10. Astragalus alienus, Sp. Nov. 



A. humilis, fruticidosus, multiceps, cinereo-pubescens ; stipulis vaginan~ 

 tibus; foliis confertis ; petiolis indurates persistentibus ; foliolis multi- 

 jug is ellipticis retusis ; floribus geminis subsessilibus ; calycis clentibus 

 tubo oblongo-campanxdato subdimidio brevioribus ; ovario quinque- 

 ovulato unUoculari. 



Hab. High Andes of Peru ; on the summit of the ridge at Bafios ; 

 rare. 



Plant loiv (3 or 4 inches high), rigid, fruticidose, scarcely caules- 

 cent ; the thick and woody root dividing into a tuft of caudex-like 

 branches, which below are beset with the persistent stipules, above 

 thickly armed with spinescent and persistent indurated petioles, from 

 which the leaflets have fallen. Leaves crowded, cinereous-pubescent, 

 an inch long. Stipules sheathing, much less united on the petiolar 

 side, where they are adnate to the base of the petiole only, but united 

 on the opposite side nearly to their apex, pubescent like the leaves. 

 Leaflets in many pairs (12 to 15), elliptical, retuse, usually complicate, 

 about a line and a half in length, the upper surface less pubescent. 

 Flowers in pairs at the apex of the stem, or in the upper axils, almost 

 sessile, half an inch long. Calyx oblong-campanulate, pubescent with 

 short dark-coloured hairs; the triangular-subulate teeth nearly half the 

 length of the tube. Corolla twice the length of the calyx, probably 

 purple. Ovary oblong-linear, silky-villous, one-celled, five-ovuled, some- 

 what stipitate. Legume unknown. 



This would appear to belong to the same group as several of the 

 foregoing species ; but it exhibits the spinescent persistent stipules of 

 the Tragacanthce, — in which respect it is unlike any other known 

 species of the New World. 



